Abbott, E.C. (Edward Charles), 1860-1939

Edward Charles "Teddy Blue" Abbott was born December 17, 1860, in Cranwich Hall, Norfolk County, England. In 1871, he came to the United States with his father, J.B. Abbott. They went to Texas, eventually purchased a cattle herd, and drove it north to Nebraska. Teddy Blue settled with his family at the end of the Texas cattle trail near Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1883, he entered Montana with a herd of longhorns, and two years later, signed on with the DHS Ranch at Fort Maginnis. He became engaged to Mary Stuart, daughter of one of his employers, Granville Stuart. The couple married on September 29, 1889, and settled on the 3 Deuce Ranch at Giltedge. They had ten children: Katie Anne (1890), Charles Edward, Jr. (1892), Mary E. (1895-1904), William (1897-1897), Elsie Blue (1898), Granville S. (1901), James (1903), William Robert [Robert] (1906), Teddie Blue [Ted] (1909), and Mary Inez (1912). Teddy Blue Abbott was a longtime member of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, he served six years on the Montana Stock Commission for Fergus County, thirty years as a member of the Democratic Central Committee, and sixteen years as a school trustee, and, in 1924, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the state legislature. In 1938, Abbott collaborated with Helena Huntington Smith (Mrs. Henry F. Pringle) on his autobiography "We Pointed Them North," the story of his years as a cowpuncher on the Texas cattle drives and his experiences on Montana's open range in the 1880s. Teddy Blue Abbott died of pneumonia April 7, 1939, days after the book was published. Mary Stuart Abbott was born February 2, 1870, in Deer Lodge, Montana, to Granville and Arbonnie Stuart. She died February 5, 1967, in Lewistown. She spent her later years with daughter Mary Inez Swanson Matejcek.

From the guide to the Edward Charles "Teddy Blue" Abbott Papers, 1865-1963, (Montana Historical Society Archives)